An Incendiary Tale

On April 10th, 1734, the cry of “fire” was heard in Montreal’s mercantile district. Neighbours noticed smoke pouring from the attic of the home of the widow de Francheville on rue St-Paul in what we now know as Vieux Montréal. Any city fire was terrifying until modern times. Even when most houses the prosperous street were built of stone, fires spread. Despite ordinances, most people finished their roofs with cheap wooden shingles. Once they caught fire, hot winds swept the flaming wood high in the air, to land on neighbouring buildings. By the time citizens and troops from Montreal’s garrison fought the fire to a standstill, it had destroyed 45 houses in the little city’s business district as well as Montreal’s only hospital, the Hôtel Dieu. Hundreds were homeless. The devastation threatened the entire colony’s chief trade by devouring the stores and supplies of most of the main fur traders.

By that time too, Montreal’s town crier had passed through the city...